Los Alamos National Laboratory

A leaked report from a nominally independent office within the National Nuclear Security Administration offers a trove of new details about the cost estimate for a plan the agency must sell to Congress in order to start producing nuclear-warhead cores in South Carolina. On Thursday, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said he would officially cancel the […]

It will cost about $20 billion to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-grade plutonium by burying it in the New Mexico desert, compared with almost $50 billion to convert the material into commercial reactor fuel using an unfinished facility in South Carolina, Energy Secretary Rick Perry told Congress on Thursday. The preliminary life-cycle […]

It will cost up to $4.6 billion to convert an unfinished plutonium-disposal plant in South Carolina into a working factory for nuclear-warhead cores by 2030, a spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration said Friday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency delivered the preliminary cost estimate a day after it announced it wanted to turn […]

Top executives at AECOM and BWX Technologies this week made clear their companies still aim to come out on top in the extended contest for a multibillion-dollar contract at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. David Black, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Virginia-based BWXT, addressed the situation in […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies saw its first quarter 2018 revenue rise 6.8 percent, to $457 million, from $428 million in the first three months of 2017. BWXT issued its quarterly earnings after the markets closed on Friday. Company officials will discuss the results today at 9 a.m. Eastern time during its regular earnings call with […]

The Board of Directors for the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) voted April 27 to advertise for a new executive director to succeed Andrea Romero, whose contract was not renewed at the end of February following a public dispute over expense reimbursements. Los Alamos County, N.M., is preparing the necessary advertisement, County Manager Harry […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory called a two-day time out on some of its plutonium work late last month after personnel put fissile material in the wrong containers, according to a report released April 27 by an independent federal nuclear-safety watchdog. Both mishaps took place in March at the New Mexico lab’s Plutonium Facility. During […]

The Board of Directors for the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) voted April 27 to advertise for a new executive director to succeed Andrea Romero, whose contract was not renewed at the end of February following a public dispute over expense reimbursements. Los Alamos County, N.M., is preparing the necessary advertisement, County Manager Harry […]

Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) became the new contractor in charge of legacy nuclear cleanup at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico effective Monday morning. The contractor just finished a 90-day transition that has included hiring staff, inspecting cleanup areas and setting up new policy and business procedures, the […]

The Board of Directors for the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) voted April 27 to advertise for a new executive director to succeed Andrea Romero, whose contract was not renewed at the end of February following a public dispute over expense reimbursements. Los Alamos County, N.M., is preparing the necessary advertisement, County Manager Harry […]

Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) became the new contractor in charge of legacy nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico effective Monday morning. A spokesperson for N3B President and Project Manager Nick Lombardo confirmed the news late Monday afternoon, saying the firm would issue a formal announcement later this […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory called a two-day time out on some of its plutonium work late last month after personnel put fissile material in the wrong containers, according to a report released late Friday by an independent federal nuclear-safety watchdog. Both mishaps took place in March at the New Mexico lab’s Plutonium Facility. During […]

The Energy Department could store transuranic waste up to 10 years at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) cleanup site in Schenectady County, N.Y., under a hazardous waste permit it has requested from the state. In early April, DOE submitted the application to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which expects to issue the draft […]

The Energy Department will not contest $31,000 in state fines for leaving certain waste too long in temporary storage areas without prior approval at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico. The nuclear-weapon lab has 30 days from April 5 to take issue with a penalty proposed in a New Mexico Environment Department notice […]

The University of California submitted its best and final offer to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the next decade, a spokesperson for the institution said Friday. “It’s my understanding that all teams have submitted their final bids at this time,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. The University […]

About two months after he left the federal ranks, the former top Department of Energy official at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., joined Atkins in a new role created for him. Jack Craig, who in February retired as manager of DOE’s Savannah River Site office after three years in that role and over […]

A “bulging drum” of non-radiological waste resulted in a partial evacuation of the Sigma Complex at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on Monday. The Los Alamos Fire Department responded to the Sigma facility, on the main LANL campus, at about 2:30 p.m. Monday, a lab spokesperson said by email. The plastic drum […]

The bid team that includes Texas A&M University has submitted its final offer on a contract to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the next 10 years, a university spokesperson said Thursday. “Best and final have been submitted and we believe NNSA [the National Nuclear Security Administration] will announce an award in the May […]

The management and operations contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., is reviewing three bid proposals from companies hoping to build a new permanent underground ventilation system for the deep-underground disposal site. Bid proposals were received March 21 and are now under review, Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) spokesman Donavan […]

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Wednesday pressed Energy Secretary Rick Perry to ensure that a focus on particular projects at the Hanford Site does not come at the expense of others. Perry and other Energy Department officials appeared before the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee to discuss the agency’s $30.6 billion budget request for […]

John Sarrao will replace Alan Bishop as principal assistant director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Science, Technology, and Engineering branch, a lab spokesperson said Monday. In his new role, Sarrao will run the lab’s fundamental science programs, which include research applicable to nuclear weapons, among other things. The directorate’s four sub-branches are: chemistry, life, […]

Purdue University on April 6 confirmed it teamed with Bechtel National, of Reston, Va., on a bid to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico — a teaming arrangement first reported by Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor in February. The confirmation came Friday from Mitch Daniels, president of the Indiana-based university. Daniels spoke to the […]

The ranking Democrat on the Senate panel that writes the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) annual funding bill said this week she would not vote for a budget that keeps the B83 nuclear gravity bomb in service. Meanwhile, New Mexico’s senior senator laid into the Energy Department subagency’s top official about plans to move production […]

The ranking Democrat on the Senate panel that writes the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) annual funding bill said Wednesday she would not vote for a budget that keeps the B83 nuclear gravity bomb in service. Meanwhile, New Mexico’s senior senator laid into the Energy Department subagency’s top official about plans to move production of nuclear-weapon cores […]

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Wednesday pressed Energy Secretary Rick Perry to ensure that a focus on particular projects at the Hanford Site does not come at the expense of others. Perry and other Energy Department officials appeared before the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee to discuss the agency’s $30.6 billion budget request for fiscal […]

John Sarrao will replace Alan Bishop as principal assistant director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Science, Technology and Engineering branch, a lab spokesperson said Monday. In his new role, Sarrao will run the lab’s fundamental science programs, which include research applicable to nuclear weapons, among other things. The directorate’s four sub-branches are: chemistry, life […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., anticipates receiving about 300 shipments during the 12 months from February 2018 and February 2019. That’s according to slides shared by Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader at the Waste Management Symposium last month in Phoenix, Ariz. During this period, DOE and WIPP management […]

Purdue University on Friday confirmed it teamed with Bechtel National, Reston, Va., on a bid to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico — a teaming arrangement first reported by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing’s sister publication in February. The confirmation came Friday from Mitch Daniels, president of Indiana-based Purdue University. Daniels spoke to […]

Laying out the annual weapons budget for some of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) major sites over the last decade yields little in the way of surprise: generally, the weapons budget is going up. Source: DOE Congressional Budget Requests (Laboratory Tables). Link: Interactive Version of Chart. Figuratively speaking, these trends were written on […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory contracted out just shy of 60 percent of its total procurement dollars to small businesses in fiscal 2017, handily exceeding the Department of Energy’s goal for the nation’s oldest nuclear-weapon lab. In the penultimate year of Los Alamos National Security’s (LANS) management and operations contract, the northern New Mexico weapons […]